April 18, 1983

The slaying of Kathleen J. Williams at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel last Sept. 22 touched off one of New York City's most extensive police investigations. On some days as many as 30 detectives were involved. During tens of thousands of hours of work, they questioned hundreds of people and checked thousands of fingerprints until they matched the single blood-smudged print that led to the arrest last Thursday of Juan E. Robles. But the investigation has raised anew questions about how the police decide to use their resources.

That Cosmopolitan Girl has appeared on cable television, discussing affairs of the heart. On the same channel, the Newsweek Woman examines affairs of state. Next month, the Essence Woman makes her debut - exploring black affairs as well as offering health and beauty tips. Lured by the promise of cable television, excited by the electronic revolution, increasing numbers of magazine publishers are being drawn to video. Some have leaped in with both feet - the Hearst Corporation, with its joint venture in the Hearst/ABC cable channel, and Playboy Enterprises, with the Playboy Channel. The majority of publishers, however, are developing programming that they sell to cable or syndication or even to the networks.

The Reagan Administration informed Israel today that it could buy American-designed components for a new fighter aircraft to be built in Israel, State Department officials said. The Administration's decision was seen by Israeli officials as being aimed at gaining increased Israeli flexibility in the negotiations on the withdrawal of troops from Lebanon. Moshe Arens, the Israeli Defense Minister, who until recently was his country's Ambassador to Washington, said the decision was ''good news.'' Arens Expresses Hope on F-16's ''I'm grateful to the President of the United States,'' Mr. Arens said, ''and particularly grateful to the Secretary of State, George Shultz, who I know has worked hard to bring about this release.''

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board Options Exchange are close to an agreement to give their members access to each other's markets. The move has important implications for the present structures of both the commodities and securities industries. More immediately, it has brought to the surface a long-simmering dispute between the Chicago Board of Trade, the nation's biggest commodity futures exchange, and its offspring, the Options Exchange, which operates the largest stock and index trading markets. On Friday, members of the Board of Trade circulated a petition asking members to exercise their right to join the Options Exchange and used their vote to block a move by the exchange to link up with the Board of Trade's major rival, the Chicago Merc. That exchange, the second-biggest commodity futures market, is rapidly gaining on its chief competitor among the nation's 11 major commodity exchanges.

The Rangers could not have cut it much closer and still come away with a victory last night. And Mike Bossy couldn't have come much closer to cutting that victory out of their hands and forcing overtime. The Rangers had built a 7-2 lead at Madison Square Garden in the first two periods. But in the third, they let it slide away until, with 43 seconds left in the game, Denis Potvin scored the Islanders' fourth goal of that period, on a power play, to slice the lead to 7-6.